Electric Mountain bike help

[Timmos1974]

Hey guys

Im having to give up squash due to not being able to keep up physical wise with the youngsters ( im 47 this year) and my job as a chippy takes it toll.....

I was thinking of taking up mountain biking as a hobby, but trying an electric one. Is their any tips or hints on what i should be looking out for?

Thanks

TIm

[LimJim]

What kind of trails / surface will you be mostly riding on?

If budget allows, full suspension has few downsides with a motor.

[Timmos1974]

Thanks LM

Mostly coastal path stuff i suppose.

[Spitwad]

Timmos1974 said:

Thanks LM

Mostly coastal path stuff i suppose.

One thing's for sure, after squash, that'll be a doddle. For that kind of stuff, probably worth looking at hard tail bikes. They're a bit cheaper than full on trail weapons with full suspension that you probably don't need for the kind of riding you describe.

After that, the next consideration should be range. A hardtail with say a 600w battery should be good for 30-40 miles if ridden relatively gently. They have different modes with differing levels of assist - obviously the more assist, the lower the range. Beyond those two considerations, you're into brands & that's where the arguing starts. Big brands like Specialised, Cube, Trek etc. mean stuff like parts & servicing is easy to get done, smaller more boutiquey brands often have better bikes on paper but ownership can be trickier.

If it's intended for a few rides a week, then nothing wrong with looking at Decathlon, Halfords, Vitus etc. In the end, the best thing is to try a few & see what you like but stock is thin everywhere now as Covid has got people out exercising more & shafted supply chains.

One other thing, probably best to look at centrally mounted motors rather than hub ones - it puts a large mass at the centre & bottom of the bike, just where you want it.

[colin_p]

If you already have a bike, convert it. A mid motor Bafang or Torsheng kit with a suitable battery, go for 48v if possible over 36v.

If you haven't, consider getting a normal mountain bike and converting that.

Either way, much cheaper and better, just not as aesthetically good looking. A £500 to £600 base bike (make sure it has hydraulic brakes and preferably a 68mm bottom bracket shell) plus a mid motor kit for about £800 will out perform (for mere mortals) and out range bikes costing much more.

[ruggedscotty]

same story here... chubbster... needed to lose weight..

so got a bike, normal one and it knackered me, hated it. over 50 and lugging a lot of weight...

Anyways someone suggested to try and electric bike I was like yeah... that will work... honestly...

So I tried it and wow... I went about bought one.

not a mountain bike but a city, used it for getting in and out of work. thats 25 miles a day. the weight soon melted. thing is if you have that extra little help then you will cover more miles and more miles mean that your getting a better work out. Gyms I get bored off, but a bike pick a decent route and your doing a workout without even thinking of it. get into it.

i got a merida, Now the thing is they are expensive, thats just the way it is, a battery is around £500 so you can see that adds a fair bit, if your getting an electric bike new at £750 then your getting an expensive battery wrapped by cheap mechanics lol. thats just going to lead to trouble.

Now I know mines a city bike, id probably go for a mountain bike hard tail next just to be able to get in and around the country side. but for exercise a good run each day works wonders.

go on splash and you will enjoy it. see if there are any ride to work grants or employee deals etc...

[BlackG7R]

Done a fair bit of research on this myself just recently.

Started off with a budget of about £1500, soon found out that wasn't gonna cut it. Seems to me you need to spend £2k+ to get anything half decent, and you can easily get into £4 or £5k if you want full suspension, but I guess it all depends on what you'll be using it for.

Mid mounted motor seems to be reckoned to be the best option, I like the sound of the Bosch Gen 4 motor myself. Also go for the biggest battery you can afford 400w/hr seems to be the lower end of the range currently, with 700w/hr being at the higher end (Although battery tech seems to be moving quite fast)

I'm a similar age to you, and I'll only be doing local trails similar to you, nothing too extreme, so have decided a hardtail is probably the way to go for me.


I've narrowed it down to these two models :-


https://www.cube.eu/en/2021/e-bikes/mountainbike/h...

or this

https://www.cube.eu/en/2021/e-bikes/mountainbike/h...


P.S. Good luck finding one though, I've been quoted late Spring delivery for either of the models above.

Edited by BlackG7R on Friday 1st January 22:04

[BlackG7R]

I've really got into this channel on Youtube.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7Txz5nUDD14vCdNS...

[Timmos1974]

Really Appreciate the time and effort lads youve taken to reply. thanks

Yes Im going to buy second hand so price wise around 1500 quid, ive seen a mondraker prime 2017 that seems quite good value.

The only trouble is I know nothing about the specs on battery etc, surely the battery will need changing soon??? if so how much is that?

What do people use as GPS? iphone or a standalone outfit?

[BlackG7R]

I think batteries are usually reckoned to be good for around 1000 cycles, depending on how well they've been looked after. ie. stored indoors or in a cold shed, left flat or partly charged etc.

I think you can reckon on £500 + for a new / spare battery, depending on size. (beginning to look like an expensive hobby isn't it !!)

Edited by BlackG7R on Saturday 2nd January 17:46

[PushedDover]

Get on to the FB groups for or local eMTB'ers or the make you want.

i.e I have :
https://www.facebook.com/groups/548128469093516 Cube eMTB
https://www.facebook.com/groups/431116960858484 Cube ebike
https://www.facebook.com/groups/452500948544608 North Yorkshire eMTB


Second hand Bikes often pop up there.

There is a mahooosive PH thread too : https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...

As above - I am mid forties, pedalled circa 20mile loops on my Hybrid road bike.
Moved to a very hilly but beautiful area. Tried an EMTB and instantly had to source (two for his / hers as it happens)
Never looked back (other than at roadies ) and ride out at any given opportunity, at any hour.
From a sloth to clocking 2,000 miles from April to November this year would suggest 'they work'

Each to their own, but I would not touch or start with a conversion kit. I'd buy at about £2,5k if possible a hardtail and put a suntour suspension seatpost on to give you a great all rounder.

And you take in some stunning scenery:

[colin_p]

LimJim said:

Lots of great suggestions here which I agree with.

Just an alternative angle. There is an awkward pricing hump similar to BEVs due to the battery/motor costing multiples of the bike.

So if you want to test it out whether the hobby is likely to take, you can buy hub conversion kits for 400 or hub bikes from Halfords for around 800 last time I looked. (pre covid....), it will definitely give you the gist and probably allow you a better bike. And you probably won't miss the central motor too much on paths.

If you start looking at more technical riding and a more natural feel, I would then start to look at mid drive stuff. As a general rule bosche motors are more torquey and Yamaha motors feel a bit more natural. But you are looking at a starting price of 2k for hardtail or 3k for FS. After that hump any additional cash tends to go mostly on the frame and components.

Good points made and as with everything, each to their own.

There certainly does seem to be e-bike 'tax' as everyone wants the latest and greatest. Spunking £2k to £3k on an e-bike where the base bike without the electric bits would cost £500 to £600 is bonkers.

The other thing to consider in a factory produced e-bike is redundancy, if something fails a few years down the line it may become very difficult to obtain spare parts for them, and you could find yourself with an uneconomical to repair non functioning lemon.

At least if you start with a normal bike and it all goes wrong, in an hour or two it can be converted back to a normal functioning bike. And when the next best greatest thing comes out you only have to buy that.

I pondered and umm'd and argh'd and decided I like my existing bike so bought and fitted a conversion kit. Power and torque are comparable to the super slick expensive factory produced bikes but the biggest difference I found was in battery capacity. For some reason the aftermarket measures capacity in amp hours and the factory stuff in watt hours.

When doing my research it seemed most factory produced bikes had 400'ish watt hour batteries whereas the one I selected for my conversion is over 800 watt hours and it was only £400. The cost of the motor and gubbins was another £400 bringing the total up to £800.

Yes, it isn't as pretty as a factory produced machine as it does have a visible motor and cables but it will go just as hard but more importantly twice as far for half the cost.

[LimJim]

Oops I deleted my kit post because i replied and read the thread in the wrong order, and noticed too late that OP already ruled it out and was going for a used mid drive.

Glad your kit worked out. Probably also worth pointing out underpowered brakes can be an issue!

[PushedDover]

I.e

[Spitwad]

You could save a pile of cash by working on your boasting & putting more effort into controlling the T

[Ind1e]

Colin P - Is there any chance you could share your set up (or point me to your build thread if there is one) please ?

[nickfrog]

colin_p said:

Spunking £2k to £3k on an e-bike where the base bike without the electric bits would cost £500 to £600 is bonkers.

Thankfully the delta is not always that much. It's probably closer to £1,200 comparing electric to acoustic despite the ebike having better frames and kinematics. Which I think is very sensible.

I still reckon a £4k YT Decoy 29 is superb value compared to "cheaper" bikes or DIY Frankenbike stuff. Probably more bike than the OP needs right now but as he progresses he may realise that coastal paths get a bit boring and may want to explore proper mountain biking. And at which point the cheap bike may prove a false economy.

Edited by nickfrog on Tuesday 5th January 18:12

[colin_p]

Ind1e said:

Colin P - Is there any chance you could share your set up (or point me to your build thread if there is one) please ?

I bought a Bafang BBS01b, a 250w road legal mid drive kit with a 17a/hr 36v battery.

There is a mass of information online about these, mainly from the US, many u-tube videos to watch as well on building them. The Bafang stuff also has masses of aftermarket support where you can buy every single component should it need repair.

Very easy to fit as well, if you can take the cranks off and bottom bracket out of a bike, you can fit one of these. The most difficult part can be battery fitting, I needed to drill my frame and fit an additional rivnut.

One thing though, if you have any vanity and are worried about how your bike looks, then a kit probably isn't for you. But as I've said above, these kits go just as hard as a factory bike but much cheaper.

Watch u-tube is my best advice to learn more than I could ever put down here in text.

[colin_p]

nickfrog said:

colin_p said:

Spunking £2k to £3k on an e-bike where the base bike without the electric bits would cost £500 to £600 is bonkers.

Thankfully the delta is not always that much. It's probably closer to £1,200 comparing electric to acoustic despite the ebike having better frames and kinematics. Which I think is very sensible.

I still reckon a £4k YT Decoy 29 is superb value compared to "cheaper" bikes or DIY Frankenbike stuff. Probably more bike than the OP needs right now but as he progresses he may realise that coastal paths get a bit boring and may want to explore proper mountain biking. And at which point the cheap bike may prove a false economy.

Edited by nickfrog on Tuesday 5th January 18:12

That Delta is a rear hub motor bike with a tiny 10 amp hour battery. It'll not have much torque would eat through the battery quite quickly.

That Decoy is a nice bike but strangely couldn't obviously find the battery spec. £5k though !

[sidekickdmr]

My advise is, dont go self build, especially if you are doing it to keep fit as 95% of self builds are basiclly a motorbike, twist and go.

I have a Cube reaction pro 500, its absolutely fab, there are about 10 of us all with ebikes that go out together, some of them cost 5k and mine can do all the same stuff just as good/quick.

Its basically the cheapest best bike you can get with the most powerful Bosch performance line CX motor, cost me £2,099 but im sure a used one would be easy to find at £1,500

other best thing about it is, when you come to a big hill or you have leg burn you wack it in turbo and it helps you up the hills a lot, but turn it down to ECO or Tour and you will burn a lot of calories, and prolong your battery/range, win win!